During the Q&A sessions at Sun Microsystems' Global Media Summit, CEO Jonathan Schwartz shed a light on the *arduous* process of acquiring open source database company MySQL for $1 billion.

Schwartz said he offered to acquire MySQL 5 years ago and was rejected. Schwartz since then repeated his offer every year until earlier this year during his annual dinner with MySQL CEO Marten Mickos who again ducked the question!

"I would have dinner with him [MySQL CEO Marten Mickos] one or twice a year [...] And I always end the conversation with "jeez you are building a great company... we see the world so similarly... what would you think of being part of Sun". And he would immediately turn the conversation about his childhood in Finland! And every year we go through that ritual [...] This year he did it again: sorry we're thinking of going public. And then the next morning he called back and said: you know we might be a little more interested", revealed Schwartz.

Schwartz video after the jump.

Dolphins are flying high!

Before Sun's acquisition, MySQL software was downloaded 50,000 per day. A week after the announcement, downloads are at 70,000 a day said Sun.